Northwest Gbaya | |
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Native to | Cameroon, Central African Republic |
Native speakers | (65,000 in Cameroon cited 1980)[1] 200,000 in CAR (1996), 2,000 in Congo (1993) |
Dialects |
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Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | gya |
Glottolog | nort2775 |
Northwest Gbaya is a Gbaya language spoken across a broad expanse of Cameroon and the Central African Republic. The principal variety is Kara (Kàrà, Gbaya Kara), a name shared with several neighboring languages; Lay (Làì) is restricted to a small area north of Mbodomo, with a third between it and Toongo that is not named in Moñino (2010), but is influenced by the Gbaya languages to the south.
For male initiation rites, the Gbaya Kara use a language called La'bi.